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By the time he finally located her, more than half of the castle was shivering and closing all the windows they could see, bothered by the sudden blast of air and cold that had seemed to rush basically everywhere.
It was worth it, in his humble opinion; or at least that’s what he assured himself as he silently approached her from behind, a cocky smile on his face.
She didn’t seem to have noticed him yet, and he took some time to observe the silhouette of that fifteen year-old girl he knew so well. Her wild hair seemed to be everywhere around her, as if it was trying to protect her like a blanket, while the knife between her hands moved sharply on a piece of wood. Carving usually helped her relax; but for some reason, her body seemed tensed.
“ Hi there!” – he sang playfully, suddenly grabbing her shoulders from behind.
He was pretty sure she hadn’t noticed his arrival; yet, he couldn’t sense any reaction from her. She just ignored him.
“Took me a while to find you, where have you been all day?”
Again, no reaction.
He waited almost patiently for a moment, but the teen looked like she couldn’t hear him. He knew that it was ridiculous; she’d always had. Yet, he couldn’t help feeling nervous.
“Merida, please. You know I hate it when you ignore me.”
You’re the only one who can talk to me, he almost said. But it was no use; she already knew that.
It still took her a few minutes to do him the favor; but she eventually sighed, and slowly turned her gaze to acknowledge him, if only for a second. Jack breathed.
They both stayed silent for a while as he sat next to her from a careful distance, him watching her destroy that poor piece of wood (he tried to call it carving, he really did, but seeing the result made it astonishingly hard).
“So” – he said at last – “you seem upset.”
She let a small laugh escape her mouth. He wished he could have heard any sign of joy in it, but it sounded way too sarcastic.
“Oh, yeah. I wonder why that is.”
It was Jack’s turn to sigh.
“Merida, it will only be a few months…”
“A few months?!”
He had wished, minutes ago, that she would look at him. Now, he would have given anything to see that angry gaze turn everywhere else.
“Almost eight months is just “a few” to you?”
“And what am I supposed to do?” – he asked, defending himself.
“Stay!”
“I can’t do that, Merida.” –He tried to reason with her. I would if I could, he thought – “I go where winter goes. Always have, always will.”
It’s not like I have the choice. Hot temperatures made him feel sick, and he was not sure he would be able to survive summer.
“ Then make winter stay.” – she asked in a sweeter tone, almost begging him.
“I only control snow, frost, and a few things, but I can’t make the seasons go my way. I already told you that. I don’t even know how that works.”
She sighed again, her eyes already locked on her wood sculpture.
This was not going well. Their separation was never happy, but this one was even worse than it usually was.
“I recall you saying you could handle yourself perfectly without me.” – he teased.
“Of course I can handle myself perfectly without you!” – her immediate reaction didn’t surprise him; that’s what he had been hoping for. – “… But it doesn’t mean I want to.”
The young princess raised her head again, locking eyes with him.
“You’re my only real… friend. Besides Angus I mean.”
“You’re my only real friend too. Besides…”
“…”
“No, you’re my only real friend, actually. I must be really desperate…”
She chuckled softly, giving him a hard nudge in the stomach. He tried to repress a moan of pain behind a happy laugh.
“Idiot.”
“Look, you still have your family, the people around you… I’ll be back before you even notice.”
“Easy to say…”
“And this time, I have something to make sure you don’t forget me. Coming back to you not even seeing me anymore would be just plain rude, uh?”
She had been prepared to hit him with the back of her knife, daring him to even insinuate she could ever forget him, but the sudden idea of a present hit her first.
“A present?” – she asked, holding back a smile – “what is it?”
Jack smiled. Seeing her in a good mood again made him happy: he would have hated to leave her after a fight, and he only had one or two hours left.
“Yeah; it’s something I had been trying to make for two years actually, but now I figured out how! My powers alone weren’t powerful enough to make it stay strong for a long time, even more when I’m not here, but all I needed was some of that old man’s magic stuff.”
He could tell, by the look she was giving him that she had absolutely no idea of what he was talking about, nor in what language; not that he was very surprise.
“I was trying to break-in old North’s palace again; I’m still far away from succeeding, but I was able to get that weird jelly thing from one of the elves.”
“Who is North?”
It was really hard for Jack not to chortle this time; Merida really was the only person in the world who would put her curiosity about yet another legendary creature before the acknowledgement that her best friend had stolen something from someone important enough to leave in an actual palace.
“A great guy; I’ll tell you another day. Well, the thing is, I managed to use it to maintain my creation strong permanently, so…”
“Oh, why don’t you just show me already!” – she urged.
“Fine, fine!” – he raised his arms in front of him, as if trying to protect himself from her, a naughty smile still on his lips. – “Fine, there it goes.”
Without another word, he introduced his hand in his pocket, to retrieve something small enough for him to keep it in his closed hand.
“As you had the wonderful idea to be born in summer, consider this a very late gift for all the celebrations I’ve missed through the years.”
With that said, he delicately put his present between her open hands, which had abandoned their carving activities a while ago. Merida did shiver this time; but if it was because of his cold touch or expectation he couldn’t tell.
What he did know, was that expectation was really killing him as he waited for a reaction, waiting for her to understand what it was.
Against her tender skin laid one single tiny snowflake, made of crystal ice. It wasn’t bigger than her iris, and was so thin and looked so fragile she didn’t dare to manipulate it at first. She could see particles of ice that reminded her of Jack’s eyes circulating through it, as it shined mildly like snow on a sunny day. It was actually very simple and the details were rare.
It wasn’t beautiful. It was stunning.
Seeing she hadn’t moved or said a word for a while, Jack started to fear this wasn’t a good idea; she didn’t seem very impressed, and he felt the need to explain himself.
“I wanted to make a tiny me at first, but it was too hard to keep in place, and I didn’t want to give you a good reason to call me egocentric again; and a tiny you wasn’t easier, your hair was hell. So I thought, hey, she calls me that stupid nickname all the time, and she seems to like winter so much, why not just a “Snowflake”? But if you don’t like it, I could still try…”
“No. I do. I like it.”
Jack raised his head again. He hadn’t even noticed he had lowered it; but apparently, looking to her face was hard from that angle. And he really needed that doubtful glare to go somewhere.
“You do?”
“Yeah. It’s perfect.”
Her dark blue eyes finally left her present to meet his icy ones.
“Thank you.”
When he directed her one of his personal smirks, she had to put her head down again, assuring herself she needed to stare at this object of art some more; if she was to blush, may he not be because of a cocky smile of his.
“ You do realize I’m going to break this in no time?” – she asked , almost shy, still weighing the manufacture with her hand. It seemed so tiny and fragile.
“I dare you. I put so much of that jelly stuff on it I’m pretty sure the only thing it will do if you drop it is bounce.”
“Sure!”
“And that would also be plain rude.”
“Said Mister Rules.”
“Said Miss Princess Duties.”
They tittered as one this time.
“Seriously Jack, thank you. That was… really nice of you.”
“Anytime you want, Princess.”
Merida could actually feel her jaw hurt. For how long had she been smiling already?
When, after a while, Jack gently left her side, Merida let him go with a simple smile, still holding the most precious present she had had in her lifetime, along with her bow; also the simplest. And she still couldn’t stop smiling.
Maybe waiting for Jack to come back wouldn’t be so hard this year.